Transport layer protocols, such as TCP, utilize acknowledgement packets to present and use window sizes for flow control rate control. The attributes of the TCP and similar protocols allows for explicit inbound rate control, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,038,216, by delaying acknowledgement packets and/or modifying sequence numbers and/or advertised window size. However, various non-TCP protocols (such as the User Datagram Protocol (UDP)) generally do not allow for inbound rate control as they do not have flow control mechanisms via modification or delay of acknowledgement packets or other similar mechanisms. As a result, there is generally no opportunity, for non-TCP protocols, to affect the rate of incoming packets via an allocated bandwidth/window size.
With increasing use of non-TCP protocols, overall inbound rate control, for example—in a network that has TCP and non-TCP traffic, is proving to be challenging as nothing exists in the art for effective inbound rate control for those non-TCP protocols.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related therewith are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.